With advanced connected services in vehicles, there are numerous opportunities for a driver to be distracted while driving. The driver can be focused on navigation input/control, media selection, data retrieval or other vehicle features, instead of being focused on the road. To counteract this risk, many vehicles selectively disable interactive features while a vehicle is in motion, to avoid undue driver distraction. Unfortunately, there are other sources of driver distraction as well, a primary one of which includes portable devices.
U.S. Application Publication 2005/0255874 generally relates to a system and method for detecting motion of a cell phone and disabling the use of the cell phone while moving or driving. The inventive system includes: a cell phone; a sensor to detect motion of the cell phone; software in the cell phone to disable the use of the cell phone when motion is detected. In a preferred embodiment, the system also recognizes the near proximity of an automobile and disables the use of the cell phone in this near proximity.
U.S. Application Publication 2009/0224931 generally relates to a mobile device configured to have at least one function disabled when a speed of the mobile device exceeds a threshold. The mobile device includes an output component configured to provide a notification related to disabling the at least one function. The mobile device also includes a first input component configured to promote controlling whether to disable the at least one function.